Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes already have plenty in common even before the latter is confirmed as the next manager of Manchester United. Glasgow, a fondness for the Labour party, a dedication to the old-fashioned values of hard work and the reliance on a strong paternal influence count among those.

By virtue of the two Sirs, Ferguson and Matt Busby, United historically hold a strong connection to the west of Scotland. Moyes will continue that alliance. While Scotland's inability to produce top-class players is a source of national discontent, there is legitimate pride at the continued appearance of Scottish coaches in prominent positions.

It would take a mere 15 minutes to drive between Govan and Bearsden, the respective childhood backdrop of Ferguson and Moyes, yet the areas of Glasgow appear poles apart. Ferguson's Govan is the traditional home of shipbuilding on the River Clyde, an area that, like so many others of its ilk across Britain, was subsequently wounded by the decline of heavy industry and unemployment.

It remains an active shipyard and regeneration has occurred, but Govan is more warmly recognised by virtue of its past than the present. Bearsden, in contrast, is a leafy suburb. Moyes attended the non-denominational and state Bearsden Academy, ranked 10th for performance in the whole of Scotland last year.

Yet it would be simplistic to regard Moyes's upbringing as privileged. It was quite the opposite, in fact; as a child looking on at his father's determined work with amateur and college football teams, Moyes took on board the core beliefs he has exhibited to this day.

"I was brought up in a family embedded in volunteer work through dad's involvement with Drumchapel Amateurs and as a teacher at Anniesland College, where he ran their team as well," Moyes recalls. "I used to watch them in the morning and Drumchapel in the afternoon when I was knee high to him.

"My earliest memories are him spending hours on the house phone at nights – no mobiles in those days – and it was always arranging times, places, pitches, referees, opposition. It was all planning. And my mum was washing the strips. She used to moan because it got too much at times for the washing machine in the house. We'd end up taking the bags to the laundrette in Whiteinch on the Sunday after the game."

The Moyes family football connection remains to this day. David's brother, Kenny, is a football agent with high-profile clients such as Charlie Adam and David himself on his books, while their cousin, Dessie Brown, is the general manager of Coleraine.

Moyes's playing career took him from a 12-year-old at Celtic Boys Club to turn out just 24 times for the senior team. After a low-key time at Cambridge United, Bristol City and Shrewsbury Town, he returned to Scotland and Dunfermline Athletic. There, he struck up a close friendship which remains to this day with Ian McCall, himself once regarded as Scotland's brightest young manager.

"I shared a car with David and Billy Davies from Glasgow to Dunfermline and we were all very interested in the management side of the game," McCall explains. "David was down at Largs [at the Scottish FA's coaching base] at every opportunity."

That Largs reference is highly pertinent. Ferguson, after all, was a massive advocate of the centre for training coaches three decades ago. "He is meticulous, he is exceptionally driven and he has a real strength of character," adds McCall of Moyes. "I know that when he was in charge of Preston North End, people at the club had to tell him to stop going to so many games because he was out at eight, nine, 10 a week.

"The job he has done at Everton is astoundingly good. We maybe don't appreciate that as much in Scotland but when you go to England and around his company, you can tell how respected he is and how he is one of the top men down there.

"He fits the identikit of a Manchester United manager and not just because he is from Glasgow. He has allied old-school beliefs with a lot of new thinking. In the coaching sessions I have watched at Everton, he was hands-on with some very advanced stuff. He is always forward-thinking, which is the way with any great manager."

The question remains, though, as to why so many of those characters hail from Scotland or, indeed, one specific region of it. Malky Mackay, once a bank clerk in Glasgow city centre, is the latest to gain plaudits on account of Cardiff City's promotion to the Premier League.

"The honesty, bluntness even, and work ethic of the Glasgow guys appeals to people," says the ex-Scotland manager Craig Brown, who succeeded Moyes at Preston North End. "David Moyes is a workaholic. He did a marvellous job at Preston. The Championship has been a graveyard for Scottish managers over the years, but he is one of the few to emerge from it completely unblemished. He has never been sacked.

"When we were at the 1998 World Cup, David phoned me and asked if he could come out to watch us training. He did that, at his own expense, and stood at the side of the pitch, almost shyly, as we worked away. He also has a great eye for a player, he has proved excellent at recruitment, which is vital. I cannot praise him highly enough."

Amid the analysis of what special ingredient Scottish managers have historically retained, one fact is unquestionably true. That is, Sir Alex Ferguson offered inspiration to a generation of them, including David Moyes. The 50-year-old has drawn sufficiently on that to be permitted the chance to follow in the footsteps of a legend.

The Guardian and Observer's award winning photographer has been photographing Sir Alex Ferguson for over 20 years. Here he picks some of his favourite shots of British football's most successful manager